A training proposal to help mental health professionals clarify and manage implicit values in the counseling process.

A training model that will help therapists develop the ability to articulate and work with values implicit in the counseling process is presented, and research is reviewed that provides strong evidence that clients' values are influenced during the course of therapy by the therapist's values. In the proposed training, participants 1st translate various aspects of their therapeutic approach into value language. Second, they are provided with an ethical framework to facilitate the analysis of particular cases in terms of the therapist's multiple responsibilities, self-interests, and social vision. Finally, participants are introduced to the tool of levels of explanation, which may facilitate working with issues of religion and philosophy of life as these relate to client problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes toward mental health professionals.

Attitudes of 85 undergraduates toward various mental health professional roles were evaluated using a semantic differential assessment instrument. Expressed attitudes were most positive toward those roles identified with physical medicine (i.e., physician and nurse) and least positive toward those professions traditionally identified with mental illness (i.e., psychiatrist and psychoanalyst). However, the public appears to be making increasing differentiations in attitudes expressed toward the various professional groups identified with the "psyche" prefix. For example, counseling psychologist was rated consistently as one of the most positive professional role categories, whereas psychoanalyst was rated consistently as one of the most negative role designations. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

National health insurance: Implications for mental health practitioners.

Notes that beyond health care coverage, any national health plan has broad implications for administration, financing, the nature of practice, and social conditions. Some 26 implications (e.g., defining professional standards, determining who may "doctor") for the mental health professions are delineated. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social climate comparison of mutual help and psychotherapy groups.

Mutual help groups for the mentally ill (n?=?33) were significantly different from psychotherapy groups (n?=?25) on 9 of 10 perceived social climate dimensions from the 90-item Group Environment Scale. The mutual help members perceived that their groups had more active leaders, greater group cohesion, more structure and task-orientation, and fostered more independence. The members of psychotherapy groups perceived that their groups encouraged more expression of negative and other feelings and showed more flexibility in changing the group's activities. The present findings could be used to improve cooperation and referrals between mutual help groups and the mental health community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concepts of schizophrenia among mental health professionals: A factor-analytic study.

Factor analyzed the questionnaire responses of 183 mental health professionals to identify relevant dimensions of beliefs about the phenomenology, etiology, and prognosis of schizophrenia. 8 factors were chosen for interpretation: interpersonal etiology, Bleulerian phenomenology, disease concept of schizophrenia, poor prognosis, poor understanding of schizophrenia, schizophrenia as thinking disorder, adaptive symptomatology, and irreversibility. In relating factor scores to S variables, it was found that professional discipline accounted for a significant proportion of variance in both etiological factors. Theoretical orientation was significantly related to opinions about the purposeful nature of schizophrenic symptoms and about prognosis, and place of employment was significantly related to various opinions about etiology and phenomenology. Findings are interpreted as casting doubt on the remaining usefulness of the term "schizophrenia." (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing the violent patient: A guide for psychologists and other mental health professionals.

Being threatened, harassed, attacked, or confronted by a patient with a weapon is becoming more common and is likely to occur at some point in a mental health professional's career. Effective violence management programs can reduce the incidence of violence. Yet, few resources have been provided to assist psychologists and other mental health professionals to deal with aggressive patients. The authors offer strategies for the management of aggressive behavior that can be implemented to empower practitioners to take precautions when necessary in a quick and efficient manner when dealing with violent and potentially violent patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Play therapy for multicultural populations: Guidelines for mental health professionals.

Describes methods and techniques of play therapy for use with multicultural and diverse populations. Barriers to counseling multicultural children and Eurocentric play therapy techniques with multicultural populations are highlighted. Specific guidelines and examples for play therapy with multicultural children are provided. Recommendations and implications for mental health professionals are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Law and mental health professionals: The limits of expertise.

Explores the structure and assumptions of mental health law to elucidate the proper role of mental health professionals when they provide information to the legal system. Most of the questions asked of professionals by law are argued to be primarily social, moral, and legal rather than scientific. It is claimed that in light of present knowledge, experts have less to offer to the law than is commonly supposed. They can, however, make a limited, reasonable contribution to legal decision making by providing scientific information that is not otherwise available to the law. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arousal and physiological toughness: Implications for mental and physical health.

From W. B. Cannon's identification of adrenaline with "fight or flight" to modern views of stress, negative views of peripheral physiological arousal predominate. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) arousal is associated with anxiety, neuroticism, the Type A personality, cardiovascular disease, and immune system suppression; illness susceptibility is associated with life events requiring adjustments. "Stress control" has become almost synonymous with arousal reduction. A contrary positive view of peripheral arousal follows from studies of subjects exposed to intermittent stressors. Such exposure leads to low SNS arousal base rates, but to strong and responsive challenge- or stress-induced SNS-adrenal-medullary arousal, with resistance to brain catecholamine depletion and with suppression of pituitary adrenal-cortical responses. That pattern of arousal defines physiological toughness and, in interaction with psychological coping, corresponds with positive performance in even complex tasks, with emotional stability, and with immune system enhancement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reviewing professional practice: Implications for the mental health consumer.

Discusses ways in which professional practice review (PR) may affect the consumer of mental health services. Cost containment and quality control are the major purposes of PR. PR appears to more effectively control utilization of services than cost per unit. PR may increase quality of service by establishing a better data base for evaluating treatment and outcome. Although PR may decrease costs and increase quality, it may also infringe on the privacy of the clients and narrow their freedom in choosing a provider. It is concluded that consumers need to be involved to make sure that PR addresses issues of importance to them, such as humaneness of treatment and control of poorly prepared providers. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of nomothetic and ideographic positions in risk assessment: Implications for practice and the education of psychologists and other mental health professionals.

Comments on the article of R. Borum (see record 83-38265) on predicting risk of violence, by elaborating on the notion of the importance of integrating the virtually separate worlds of research on prediction of violence and the clinical practice of assessment. The present authors suggest is a collaborative path through the tightly linked scientist–practitioner, nomothetic–ideographic, and actuarial–clinical debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differentiation of resources in mental health delivery: Implications for training.

The following mental health delivery systems, which include a variety of "movements" or approaches, are briefly differentiated and reviewed: prevention, self-help groups, social-skills training problems, psychotherapeutic interventions, environmental modification, and community resources. The implications of this differentiation for training in clinical psychology are discussed. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roles for mental health professionals in critical law enforcement incidents: An overview.

Law enforcement personnel routinely face various critical incidents in the course of their workday including confrontations with irate, violent, and/or mentally challenged individuals. While less frequent, law enforcement personnel also are called in response to hostage incidents, barricaded subject incidents, and attempted suicide/suicide by cop incidents. Over the past 30 years, response strategies utilized by law enforcement personnel have been evolving and have been influenced by mental health professionals. This article briefly reviews the histories of Critical Incident Teams (CITs) and Crisis Negotiation Teams (CNTs), discusses the roles of mental health professionals in the development and continuing evolution of CITs and CNTs, presents some of the obstacles to mental health involvement with law enforcement, and highlights areas in need of more empirical research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Migrant mental health: A model for indicators of mental health and health care consumption.

Objective: This study explores the relationship between mental health and health care consumption among migrants in the Netherlands. Design: Samples of the Turkish (n = 648), Moroccan (n = 102), and Surinamese (n = 311) populations in Amsterdam were examined. The study tested a hypothesized model of risk factors for psychiatric morbidity, indicators of well-being, and indicators of health care consumption. The model was specified on the basis of information from earlier research on the sample and literature on the topic. The model was tested and refined using structural equation modeling. Main outcome measures: Psychiatric morbidity and well-being measures were assessed with the CIDI 1.1 and MOS-sf-36 subscales, respectively. Health care consumption was assessed by the question "Have you ever consulted one or more of these professionals or health care facilities with respect to mental health problems or problems related to alcohol or drugs usage?" Results: The primary result of this study was the confirmation that health care consumption among migrants is predicted by need and predisposition factors, such as health condition and sociodemographic characteristics. In addition, mental health care consumption of migrants is predicted by acculturation characteristics. This result suggests an effect of cultural and migrant-specific factors in help-seeking behavior and barriers to mental health care facilities. Conclusions: Findings confirm the existence of migrant-specific mechanisms in health care consumption. Mental health care professionals should be aware of these. However, ignoring common ground for interventions unnecessarily creates distance between migrant groups and between migrant and indigenous Dutch groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early withdrawal from mental health treatment: Implications for psychotherapy practice.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 46(2) of Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training (see record 2009-08897-009). The fourth author’s name was mistakenly left out of the author byline and table of contents. The correct author listing for this article is presented in the erratum.] Despite more than 50 years of research on client attrition from therapy, obstacles to the delivery and success of treatments remain poorly understood, and effective methods to engage and retain clients in therapy are lacking. This article offers a review of the literature on attrition, highlighting the methodological challenges in effectively addressing the complex nature of this problem. Current interventions for reducing attrition are reviewed, and recommendations for implementing these interventions into psychotherapy practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

National Lesbian Health Care Survey: Implications for mental health care.

Presents demographic, lifestyle, and mental health information about 1,925 lesbians from all 50 states who participated as respondents in the National Lesbian Health Care Survey (1984–1985), the most comprehensive study on US lesbians to date. Over half the sample had had thoughts about suicide at some time, and 18% had attempted suicide. 37% had been physically abused as a child or adult, 32% had been raped or sexually attacked, and 19% had been involved in incestuous relationships while growing up. Almost one third used tobacco on a daily basis, and about 30% drank alcohol more than once a week, 6% daily. About three fourths had received counseling at some time, and half had done so for reasons of sadness and depression. Lesbians in the survey also were socially connected and had a variety of social supports, mostly within the lesbian community. However, few had come out to all family members and coworkers. Level of openness about lesbianism was associated with less fear of exposure and with more choices about mental health counseling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)